September 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



UWRARY 



NHVV VfM^K 



bota/vical 



877 



V-Po^ 



Reg. United States Pat. Off. Reg. United Kingdom. 



Published on the Ist of each month by 



THE INDIA RUBBER PUBLISHING CO. 



No. 25 West 4Sth Street, New York. 



Telephone — Bryant 2576. 



CABLE ADDRESS: IRWORLD. NEW YORK. 



HENRY C. PEARSON, F.R.G.S., Editor 



Vol. 64 SEPTEMBER 1. 1921 



No. 6 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS ON LAST PAGE OF READING 



THE PASSING OF A GREAT LEADER 



COLONEX Samuel Pomeroy Colt, whose untimely de- 

 cease is chronicled in this issue, will go down in his- 

 tory as one of America's great industrial leaders. It was 

 his vision, determination and management that trans- 

 formed the United States Rubber Company from a pro- 

 moters' plaything, debt-ridden and tottering, into a pros- 

 perous $150,000,000 corporation, amply financed, with 

 modern equipment, high-class products and splendid ex- 

 ecutive personnel. To accomplish this the ability to deal 

 successfully with strong men of varying types, tempera- 

 ments and ambitions was an absolute necessity. This 

 Colonel Colt possessed to a remarkable degree. To unify 

 such potent and individual human factors as Joseph 

 Banigan, E. S. Converse, J. D. Vermeule, F. M. Shepard, 

 Charles R. Flint, L. K. McClymonds, R. D. Evans, George 

 H. Hood, Charles H. Dale, the Fords, and many others, 

 required great diplomacy, vast knowledge of men and 

 endless patience. They were all pioneers, creators of big 

 business along lines of their own, and were possessed by 

 a deep-rooted antipathy to control, as well as an old- 

 fashioned suspicion of competitors. Their factories, lo- 

 cated in widely separated states, were run under widely 

 differing conditions, with their own compounds, products 

 —and selling methods. With all of these varied problems — 

 y^ financial, mechanical and human — Colonel Colt grappled 

 ~ and successfully solved them. 



Pleasantly aggressive, far-sighted, tireless, he labored 



L. 

 J 



o 



to build always bigger, better, stronger. As to his tri- 

 umphs in other fields, as in the creation of the great In- 

 dustrial Trust Company of Providence, they do not enter 

 into the field of rubber, but are cited merely to show the 

 business and creative ability possessed by this leader of 

 men. In his passing, industrial circles lose a most notable 

 figure, and tlie rubber trade its best-known member. 



SHORTAGE OF COTTON IMMINENT 



COMING at a juncture when there is urgent need for 

 revision downward in cost production and selling 

 price in order to stimulate sluggish trade into reasonable 

 activity, comes official confirmation of the re[)ort that, 

 despite favorable midsummer growing conditions, tlie 

 United States cotton crop will scarcely total 8,500,000 

 bales, or some 5,000,000 less than last year, and almost 

 8,000,000 less than the record crop of 1914. Nor does 

 it seem at all probable that the figure named will be 

 raised when the crop is marketed, or that the average 

 price for spot cotton will work in any direction other 

 than away from the June, 1921, low of 10.85 cents a 

 pound, as compared with 43.75 cents in June, 1920. The 

 carry-over is not considerable in view of the potential 

 demand. American cotton acreage has been reduced be- 

 tween 25 and 30 per cent, and needy Europe, largely 

 through credits allowed to idle mill owners, is absorbinp- 

 much of the restricted cotton production of the Nile 

 Valley and elsewhere in the Old World. All these are 

 factors tending to make cotton dearer and to add to 

 the cost of rubber goods containing that staple. 



An immense amount of cotton is used in the various 

 branches of the rubber industry, and the needs of the 

 latter are certainly not growing less; yet it is doubtful 

 if even a fair allowance has been made for the require- 

 ments of the industry by its leaders. Alany buyers have 

 sensed to a degree the demands that will be made and 

 have made fair provision, but it is feared that too man) 

 manufacturers of rubber goods have not materially antici- 

 pated the demands that will be made on them. In other 

 words, they have not stocked up to the extent that trade 

 in the near future would appear to justify. Even prudent 

 purchasers may hold out too long in the hope of seeing 

 still lower cotton prices, unmindful of the fact that 

 present-day conditions may not be judged by criteria of 

 the past, and that influences are working inexorably 

 toward hardening rather than softening of cotton prices. 



A resumption of activity is noted among the textile 

 manufacturers, but the demand comes largely from mer- 

 chants rather than from the tire, proofing, footwear, and 

 other branches of the rubber trade. With dearer cotton 

 in prospect and little likelihood of reduction in labor cost, 

 the prospect favors an upward trend in the price of tex- 

 tiles. Certainly it seems that the rubber manufacturer 

 who looks far enough riliead in contracting for woven 

 material will have an advantage over him who has over- 

 stayed his time in barg.iin-himting. He may have to ask 



